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The Word About Mao (President Bush's Book Club?)
Investor's Business Daily ^ | January 25, 2006 | Editor

Posted on 01/25/2006 6:20:47 AM PST by Isara

History: The books that a president stacks on his nightstand might seem as mildly prurient as the contents of somebody else's medicine cabinet. But if he's touting a title to another head of state, then we care.

Example: the volume President Bush pressed on Germany's Angela Merkel when she visited the White House two weeks ago. He'd just read "Mao: The Unknown Story," he revealed as the two talked of Merkel's upbringing in then-communist East Germany. Bonding with Merkel, Bush felt the new chancellor would recognize the sordid rise to power of China's late tyrant. She'd appreciate it in a way her socialist predecessor couldn't.

The 814-page volume, written by Jung Chang and husband, Jon Halliday, exposes Mao Zedong's murderous persona in such lifelong detail that it thoroughly undermines the legitimacy of the regime he installed in 1949. Mao's operating principle, they make clear, was unbridled murder.

Beijing has banned the book — predictably, ....

A combustible situation, to say the least. Surely Bush knows the delicacy of brandishing such a literary weapon in international company...

The current Bush doesn't stifle the truth, as prodigiously uncovered by Chung, once a member of Mao's fanatical Red Guard, and Halliday, a British historian. On their very first page they record that Mao was responsible for the deaths of more than 70 million countrymen as he consolidated power.

...

The authors blow up fiction after sentimental fiction about Mao's life, among them that he "founded" China's Communist Party as an indigenous movement. Actually the party was a creature of the Soviet Union. Stalin's apparatchiks tolerated Mao's sometime defiance so long as he kept murdering his way to power.

The book not only provides a definitive history, but it also now — with Bush's help — makes history. Maybe the president should start a book club.

(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: angelamerkel; bush; china; communist; georgewbush; jonhalliday; jungchang; mao; massmurderer; merkel; theunknownstory
Wow! Did President Bush really do that? I didn't hear anything from the media.
1 posted on 01/25/2006 6:20:49 AM PST by Isara
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To: Isara
Mao was responsible for the deaths of more than 70 million countrymen as he consolidated power. WOW! 70 million...makes the "Rape of Nanking" sound like a stroll in the park.
2 posted on 01/25/2006 6:27:10 AM PST by Vaquero (time again for the Crusades.)
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To: Isara

It was on Drudge the other day, with a photo of the book cover. But as far as TV goes, totally ignored, I suppose.


3 posted on 01/25/2006 6:29:23 AM PST by samtheman
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To: Isara
Prediction: Because President Bush has praised it, look for the left to begin what I call the "cyber-burning" of this book.
By spamming online merchants like Amazon & B&N with biased negative reviews, and marking other negative reviews as "helpful" in order to keep them at the top of the list, the left seeks to stifle and discredit any books supportive of conservative views. "cyburners" suck.
4 posted on 01/25/2006 6:49:15 AM PST by Sisku Hanne (Happy 2006...The Year of the Black Conservative!)
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To: Vaquero
70 million countrymen To put that number into perspective. During WW2 only approx 42 million people died. Mao the butcher managed to kill nearly double that number during 'peacetime'. Whenever I hear liberals exalting the deeds of chairman mao I feel like breaking their face.
5 posted on 01/25/2006 6:51:16 AM PST by manglor
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To: Isara

I have the book, but have not started reading it. Check out comments on Amazon.com. Apparently, many readers really liked the book. There are a few readers that disagreed with some of the facts in the book, but still acknowledged that is a good scholarly effort.


6 posted on 01/25/2006 7:01:23 AM PST by GeorgefromGeorgia
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To: manglor

Who exalts the deeds of Chairman Mao? The guy never succeeded in any endeavor. Like many tyrants he was good only at one thing: attaining a position of power. Once imbued with the power he was completely inept. The Great Leap Forward? The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution? Failures on an epic scale. The guy is probably the worst leader in recorded history.


7 posted on 01/25/2006 7:02:19 AM PST by Cyclopean Squid (Moderates do not make history)
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To: Isara
What I can say right now is that even the famous Black Book of Communism may be WAY underestimating the number of deaths for political reasons under Communist regimes. The real death toll for political reasons from the former Soviet Union, China, former Communist eastern Europe, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, and Communist-aligned countries in Africa during the 20th Century could far exceed 200 million! That makes Nazi Germany seem like a minor event in comparison.
8 posted on 01/25/2006 7:13:19 AM PST by RayChuang88
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To: Isara
"A combustible situation, to say the least. Surely Bush knows the delicacy of brandishing such a literary weapon in international company..."

Merkel is no stranger to communist history. I'm sure she is well aware of Mao's record during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution even before the publication of Jung Chang's book.

Hell, Zhang Yimou made a film about the period, called To Live in 1994!!!! The film is a classic and is still banned in China.

The President is not telling Merkel anything she doesn't already know.
9 posted on 01/25/2006 7:16:55 AM PST by beaver fever
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To: Cyclopean Squid

Mao is right up there with Stalin and Hitler.


10 posted on 01/25/2006 10:10:47 AM PST by GeorgefromGeorgia
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